TODDLERS DO BATTLE AS COUNTY PARTY CHAIR ENMESHES SELF IN TRUTH AND DISCLOSURE CONTROVERSY

Following the uproar over the discovery that the new third party group South Carolinians for Truth and Disclosure appears to be a coordinated front by consultant Terry Sullivan to protect his firm’s clients, Spartanburg County GOP Chairman Rick Beltram took the group to task. That e-mail has led to a three-part exchange between the two late Friday afternoon.

In an e-mail to Sullivan, Beltram listed his “beefs” with the Truth and Disclosure group’s efforts. And in typical Beltram style, he held nothing back.

Terry:

As per our discussion yesterday, you asked me to call/e-mail you when I have a “beef” about your campaign tactics.

We had a long list yesterday as we discussed. None were satisfied.

Well, your automated attack calls are at it again today. The announcer is “Jim” is in a complete attack mode about out of state money. As we discussed, yesterday, when your client , Keith Kelly received $10,000 from NY money in 10/06 it was OK…..why has this OK money now become bad???

We have checked the law regarding automated calls and it appears that your organization is in violation of SC Code of Laws: 16-17-446.

We have been given some very sage advice on how to handle any future calls.

This is your last nice warning!

Thank you and we hope that you can go back to positive campaigning…..remember your client, Mike Forrester, is running on the slogan, “integrity”.

Your calls exhibit the opposite behavior.

We look forward to your consideration.

Thank you.

Rick Beltram

Sullivan then responded with this less-than-tasteful gem:

Rick,

You are full of more shit today then usual; Quite the accomplishment for you. While I do appreciate your free advice to Mr. Forrester, please keep your poorly thought out political advice to those paying you to give it, like Ken Roach. I promise not to call all the candidates that are paying you and give them sub-standard advice they don’t want, as long as you make the same promise to me. As for the so called “untrue information” coming from the Forrester campaign, I must ask if you are making that statement as a paid advisor to Mr. Forrester’s opponent, or as an “unbiased” party official?

I fully expect you will forward this e-mail to the media. I also assume that all of this is a weak attempt for you to get your name in the paper (good luck with that). If so, I would suggest another avenue. It is not your place as party chairman to serve as the purveyor of truth in Republican Primaries.

And frankly you publicly supporting Ken Roach could honestly earn Mike Forrester an extra chunk of votes.

I have never been anything but honest and upfront with you. I’ve also gone out of my way not to cause you headaches and even defended you at times.

What the Chairman of Spartanburg Party does is of very little interest to me. However, your insistence on inserting yourself into the middle of a Republican Primary against one of my candidates has crossed the line and I’m about fed up with it.

My last bit of free and unsolicited advice to you is this. If you want to run campaigns then man up, do it and take credit for it. If not, stop this juvenile behavior. But most importantly stop acting like a chicken shit who wants it both ways… you’re not fooling anyone.

Thanks

Terry

Beltram then followed that e-mail with another:

Terry:

Another “beef”.

Your blog listed above has posted (today) an attack on Ken Roach regarding his latest mail piece….that you claim was paid for by SCRG.

WELL…..clearly on your blog…. IT SAYS “Paid for by Ken Roach for SC House #34.

Please remove this post and issue an apology to Ken Roach.

We will look for other needless attacks against our good Spartanburg County GOP candidates and so advise you!

Please do not allow your desperation to inflict unlawful activity on the GREAT SPARTANBURG GOP organization!

Thank you.

Rick Beltram

Here’s the Cliffnotes for those of you who don’t care enough to read the e-mails:

Beltram sent the e-mail to Sullivan calling him a hypocrite. In the same e-mail, Beltram warned Sullivan that the robo calls his group was conducting on behalf of his clients were unlawful — essentially giving him a heads up before he turns him in to the State Ethics Commission.

Sullivan then informed Beltram, using some grown up words, that he is wrong and that the Spartanburg County Republican Party is a joke. In doing so, Sullivan essentially admitted that he was behind the Truth and Disclosure group; to which Beltram replied that the group needs to remove a blog post from its site because it wrongly attributes a mailing to a group that was not responsible for it.

I hate to say it, but this might be the first time — and hopefully the last time — I have ever been rooting for Beltram. This will also make for some good fireworks at tonight’s Silver Elephant Dinner… maybe.

Developing…

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 5:30 pm and is filed under Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.